HAIL THE SIGNAL VICTORY OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE'S VOLUNTEERS!

October 24, 1952

[Directive to the leading members of the Chinese People's Volunteers drafted
for the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and its Military
Commission.]

Beginning on September 18, our Volunteers, together with the Korean People's
Army, initiated tactical counter-attacks on all fronts and have won a signal
victory by annihilating and wounding more than thirty thousand enemy troops
in the space of a month. The Central Committee and its Military Commission
send you and all commanders and fighters hearty congratulations. The operations
can be summed up as follows: first, concentrating superior forces and firepower
on a number of selected tactically critical points, springing surprise attacks
and wiping out the enemy by whole platoons, whole companies, whole battalions
or by the larger part of such units; second, inflicting heavy casualties
on the enemy in repeated operations as he mounts counter-attacks; and, third,
firmly holding those captured strong-points which can be held and abandoning
those which cannot according to circumstances, so as to keep the initiative
in our hands in preparation for future counter-attacks. If such operations
are kept up, we will have the enemy by the throat and force him to come to
terms and end the Korean war. The losses inflicted on the enemy since July
last year when our forces started tenacious positional warfare have far exceeded
those inflicted on him in the many campaigns of mobile warfare before then.
On the other hand, our losses have greatly diminished. So far as casualties
are concerned, the monthly average, to speak only of our Volunteers, has
been reduced by over two-thirds in the fifteen months since July last year,
as compared with that in the previous eight months. This is due to the kind
of operation mentioned above which is carried out by relying on our positions.
In the period since September 18, operations of this kind have been carried
out on the whole front more extensively and in a more organized way and therefore
they deserve special attention.

On the occasion of the second anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteers'
entry into the war in Korea, we hope you will sum up your experience, further
enhance your sense of organization, raise your tactical level and save
ammunition, unite more closely with the Korean comrades and people and strive
for still greater victories in future operations.